No federal charges against officer who shot man in car stop

BRIDGETON, N.J. – Federal prosecutors have determined that they won’t file charges against a police officer who fatally shot a man who defied orders by stepping out of a car during a traffic stop with his hands raised.

The December 2014 shooting of Jerame Reid in Bridgeton was captured on a patrol car’s dashboard camera.

U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman announced Monday that an investigation by his office determined there was insufficient evidence to pursue criminal charges. He said the office found no charges were warranted after viewing the evidence as a whole.

On the video, Officer Braheme Days removes a gun from the car and pulls his weapon. Days shouts for Reid to put his hands up and not move, but Reid steps out of the vehicle with his hands up.

Prosecutors have said that Days fired seven shots and his partner, Officer Roger Worley, fired once. But only the shots fired by Days struck Reid.

The shooting lasted approximately 2 seconds, and Reid was hit in the chest and left arm, prosecutors said.

A grand jury in Cumberland County declined to indict the officers last summer.

Days is black, and Worley is white. Reid was black.

Reid’s shooting stirred anger in Bridgeton, a struggling, mostly minority city of 25,000 residents just south of Philadelphia. It occurred after the killings of black men in New York and in Ferguson, Missouri, triggered months of turbulent protests, violence and calls for a re-examination of police use of force.

Reid’s family has reached a tentative settlement in a federal lawsuit that still must be approved by a judge.

The settlement calls for Reid’s infant son to get about $1.5 million in periodic payments starting when he turns 18. Reid’s widow would receive $200,000, which includes legal fees. His mother and the mother of his child would each receive $70,000.

Under terms of the settlement Bridgeton and its police department deny liability.